As America approaches its 250th birthday, patriots are gearing up for festivities and traditions, while many Democrats are fantasizing about living in another country.

In a new poll from Elon University conducted by YouGov between April 30 and May 4, 55% of Democratic respondents answered that there is another country they would rather live in than the United States.

Glenn Beck was disheartened by the data.

“If anyone on this continent ever had a right to say, ... ‘This country is a fraud. These documents are a lie,’ ... it was Martin Luther King and the people who lived at that time,” he says.

He recounts how in King’s day, “Black Americans [were] being beaten for trying to vote; children [had] fire hoses turned onto them; men [were] being lynched, and the murderers [were] walking free.”

But instead of listening to the voices in the Civil Rights Movement denouncing the American project as “rotten to the root,” King, Glenn says, “reached for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution ... and he called them a promissory note.”

“This is the solution to our problems!” he exclaims.

In his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, King expressed genuine belief in America’s promise that all had a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” but argued that black Americans had received a “bad check ... marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

This hopeful yet demanding position Glenn calls “extraordinary.”

“He could have torn the note up; he could have said that promise is worthless. But he didn’t. He said he refused to believe that the bank of justice was bankrupt,” he declares. “He didn’t come to Washington to renounce the founding; he came to cash the check.”

This is what allowed King to change the world, Glenn says.

But many of today’s disgruntled Americans wouldn’t fit in with King. Unlike him, they don’t believe in the American project.

“King said, ‘The promise is real, so pay it.’ Today, they say, ‘The promise is fraudulent, so what’s the point of staying or living within the system?’” Glenn says.

The latter group, he says, is perpetuating a dangerous narrative: “If the documents are the disease, then there is no cure to be found inside the house. There’s no way out except the exit door or the match.”

To the 55% who long to leave the country, Glenn gives a sobering message: “Nearly every country on the menu you’d flee to has a lot more [soft despotism], not less.”

The “antidote,” he says, is neither flight nor destruction; it’s the Bill of Rights.

“That is the tool that Frederick Douglass picked up. That’s the tool that King picked up. When the majority had failed him, he didn’t appeal to a foreign flag; he appealed to the promise the majority had signed and broken — and he demanded America honor it,” Glenn passionately recounts.

“The Declaration is your check. ... The Constitution is that check. The Bill of Rights is your enforcement clause. They are not the thing standing between you and a country worth loving. They are the only road to that country worth loving.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.